FIG. 1 shows a wireless transmission system 100 of the prior art, including a media server 102 which is connected over an internet 104 to a wireless base station 106, which is coupled to an antenna 108 for communication with wireless mobile units 110 and 112 over wireless broadband channels 114 and 116 respectively.
Modern wireless services such as Third Generation (3G), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), and WiFi using IEEE 802.11 family of standards provide an on-demand broadband channel for carrying data packets between the wireless base station 106 and a mobile unit 110, which may, for example, be a smart phone or a laptop computer.
The wireless base station 106 may be connected over the internet 104 to servers, including the media server 102.
A media session may be requested by the mobile unit 110. The purpose of the media session is to send a stream of media packets (a media file) from the media server 102 to the mobile unit 110 via the wireless base station 106.
The media session is carried in a virtual connection between the media server 102 and the mobile unit 110, according to a standard protocol, for example the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), protocol data units (PDUs) of this higher level protocol being in turn carried over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The media server 102 transmits the media packets to the wireless base station 106 over the internet 104. The wireless base station 106 allocates an available broadband wireless channel to the mobile unit 110, and forwards the media packets to the mobile unit 110.
The transmission rate of the media packets may be throttled such that sufficient data is available at the mobile unit 110 to display the media, for example, audio or video, in real time without excessive buffering.
When the bandwidth of the wireless channel is greater, perhaps much greater, than the bandwidth required to send the throttled media packets in real time, a large amount of the wireless resource, i.e. of the allocated channel, may be wasted.
Accordingly, a method and system to improve the efficiency in the use of the wireless broadband channel are required.